1918 World Series

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Cheating in Sports?

Can it be that cheating happened before Lance Armstrong, everyone else on the Tour De France, Cold War Olympics Games, underage Chinese Athletes, Steroids in Baseball, and the New England Patriots? Yes.

Did Gamblers Fix the 1918 World Series?

Maybe It Wasn't A Goat, Babe Ruth, or Piano That Cursed Both Teams

In 2011, the 1918 World Series, where the Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 2, was alleged to have been fixed based on a comment by Eddie Cicotte during the trial for the Black Sox Scandal which erupted a year later. At the time, when Babe Ruth played for the Boston Red Sox, it was alleged that gamblers bribed players to throw games with intentional errors. Unlike today's era of high salaries, players of the time got paid more modestly, and one highlight of the 1918 series was that players attempted to hold a sit-in during a game in order to get paid the amounts they were promised for getting into the series. The series is also notable for being the only World Series game to be played entirely in September, since World War I truncated the regular season. In Chicago, the games were played at Comiskey Park instead of Wrigley Field (then Weeghman Park) because Comiskey had greater seating capacity. Game 1 of the series marked the first time the Star Spangled Banner was played at a major league game, though it was played during the 7th inning stretch.

Notes and Special Information

Special note: Aside from some vague rumors, there is not enough direct evidence to show that the 1918 series was fixed in the same way that the 1919 game was.